Solon Mather Allis was born in Danville, Quebec on June 28, 1838, the son of American parents (Julia Ann Mather and Thomas Cutler Allis) from Massachusetts and Connecticut. He moved to Massachusetts in 1860, enlisted in the Union Army (as a carpenter) in in 1862, married Victoria M. Higgins in 1863, and was mustered out of the Army in 1864. They had at least one son, Dexter, born 1881.

Solon Allis learned civil engineering and surveying in the Army during the Civil War, under Capt. F.U. Farquhar, Chief Engineer, and U.S. Engineer Lieut. William R. King; later in civilian life he became a U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor. He was responsible for laying out in 1878 the modern Tubac, Arizona townsite and the Tombstone, Arizona townsite in March, 1879. In 1878, Allis was working at the Aztec Silver Mines near Tubac, in the Arizona Territory. The Naturalists' Directory lists him as having a collection of minerals from which he would exchange. By 1881, he was living in Tucson. He had a collection of ores from various Arizona silver mines, but no fossils or shells.

From 1883 to at least 1885, Allis also gave an eastern address in Malden, Massachusetts. Finally, in the 1894 directory, Allis listed only the Massachusetts address, but he still had a mineral collection and was willing to do exchanges. No reference to Allis occurs in Directories after 1894. He died August 22, 1918.